Wide Vehicles, Narrow Country Roads
12-23-18, 10:45 AM
#26
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 39,232
Mentioned: 211 Post(s)
Tagged: 1 Thread(s)
Quoted: 18409 Post(s)
Liked 15,525 Times
in
7,325 Posts
Rural Indiana.
12-23-18, 10:55 AM
#27
Banned
My tour on the bike on west Irish roads, I thought the possible rear ending a manure spreader on the road you cannot see far ahead,
because of the roads being undulating, slowed drivers down a bit .
because of the roads being undulating, slowed drivers down a bit .
12-23-18, 02:25 PM
#28
Banned
12-26-18, 04:43 PM
#29
Resident smartass.
I was driving a rented car around South Alabama for a week and found myself on some back country roads in search of mom-and-pop hunting/fishing stores. While on W. Michigan Avenue in Foley, Alabama I came across this situation. Is this just in the South? Does this concern any of you folks who cycle these types of roads? Would you cycle this 55mph road on a foggy morning? Two abreast? Or with the sun directly in the motorists eyes half the year? Or do you just do your thing without concern for such matters?
12-26-18, 04:58 PM
#30
20+mph Commuter
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Greenville. SC USA
Posts: 7,516
Bikes: Surly LHT, Surly Lowside, a folding bike, and a beater.
Mentioned: 31 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1434 Post(s)
Liked 331 Times
in
219 Posts
They aren't any worse than most rural areas where everybody drives wide vehicles and it's part of the culture to pull a trailer everywhere (usually a flat bed).
12-26-18, 07:26 PM
#31
Me duelen las nalgas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Texas
Posts: 13,513
Bikes: Centurion Ironman, Trek 5900, Univega Via Carisma, Globe Carmel
Mentioned: 199 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4559 Post(s)
Liked 2,802 Times
in
1,800 Posts
It's an easy fix. Cheap, too. No need to spend money on improving or widening roads.
Treat vehicles striking legally operating cyclists as criminal negligence by default. Not "accidents."
Increase the minimums for liability insurance.
Watch the Infrastructure become suitable when personal responsibility and liability become the default mode. Suddenly drivers will figure out how to operate and pass safely, and choose more sensible vehicles.
Treat vehicles striking legally operating cyclists as criminal negligence by default. Not "accidents."
Increase the minimums for liability insurance.
Watch the Infrastructure become suitable when personal responsibility and liability become the default mode. Suddenly drivers will figure out how to operate and pass safely, and choose more sensible vehicles.
12-26-18, 09:07 PM
#32
20+mph Commuter
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Greenville. SC USA
Posts: 7,516
Bikes: Surly LHT, Surly Lowside, a folding bike, and a beater.
Mentioned: 31 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1434 Post(s)
Liked 331 Times
in
219 Posts
Generally, the more laws, and the stricter the punishment, the numbers of collisions stay about the same but the hit-and-runs increase. Laws do not prevent crime, other than getting some criminals off the streets by locking them up.
About 2.3 million people are incarcerated right now. Every one of them broke an existing law (presuming no mistaken identity). More laws create more law breakers. People don't care. It's illegal to speed. Yes it is! How many people obey speed laws? Statistical zero is the likely amount. People don't behave because of laws.
So dream on.
12-26-18, 09:18 PM
#33
Me duelen las nalgas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Texas
Posts: 13,513
Bikes: Centurion Ironman, Trek 5900, Univega Via Carisma, Globe Carmel
Mentioned: 199 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4559 Post(s)
Liked 2,802 Times
in
1,800 Posts
Yeah, probably true. I've heard those rumors that Chinese drivers supposedly back up and run over their hit-and-run victims to be sure they're dead, so the driver isn't responsible for a lifetime of medical support for an injured victim. No idea if it's true, but even as an apocryphal story it's an example of how well intended laws can backfire.
Ideally it would be nice to live in a nation where people valued life and assumed personal responsibility for their actions. But we ain't that utopia.
Ideally it would be nice to live in a nation where people valued life and assumed personal responsibility for their actions. But we ain't that utopia.
12-27-18, 04:41 PM
#34
Full Member
12-27-18, 05:04 PM
#35
Widely Despised
- Mirrors on the bike & on the helmet, so that no matter
your position, you can see who behind wants to kill you.
- Check those mirrors continually.
- Ride with tires wide enuf to handle the shoulders
you'll ride on to avoid being run down.
- Have emergency info on you.
- Cultivate a useful paranoia because sometimes
they really are out to get you.
I did have a guy run me down once.
He told the cops he intended to kill me.
(Drunks are more candid than sober drivers.)
12-27-18, 05:43 PM
#36
20+mph Commuter
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Greenville. SC USA
Posts: 7,516
Bikes: Surly LHT, Surly Lowside, a folding bike, and a beater.
Mentioned: 31 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1434 Post(s)
Liked 331 Times
in
219 Posts
I see you found more than one!
CHECK! Likely already be dead without the helmet mounted mirror.
CHECK!
CHECK! 26x2.1 on my Trucker
CHECK! Shows through my transparent wallet.
Copy that!
At least he was an honest felon!
- Mirrors on the bike & on the helmet, so that no matter your position, you can see who behind wants to kill you.
- Check those mirrors continually.
- Ride with tires wide enuf to handle the shoulders you'll ride on to avoid being run down.
- Have emergency info on you.
- Cultivate a useful paranoia because sometimes they really are out to get you.
I did have a guy run me down once. He told the cops he intended to kill me. (Drunks are more candid than sober drivers.)
12-29-18, 06:48 AM
#37
For The Fun of It
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Louisissippi Coast
Posts: 5,851
Bikes: Lynskey GR300, Lynskey Backroad, Litespeed T6, Lynskey MT29, Burley Duet
Mentioned: 12 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2135 Post(s)
Liked 1,644 Times
in
826 Posts
I've found only one solution....
- Mirrors on the bike & on the helmet, so that no matter
your position, you can see who behind wants to kill you.
- Check those mirrors continually.
- Ride with tires wide enuf to handle the shoulders
you'll ride on to avoid being run down.
- Have emergency info on you.
- Cultivate a useful paranoia because sometimes
they really are out to get you.
I did have a guy run me down once.
He told the cops he intended to kill me.
(Drunks are more candid than sober drivers.)
- Mirrors on the bike & on the helmet, so that no matter
your position, you can see who behind wants to kill you.
- Check those mirrors continually.
- Ride with tires wide enuf to handle the shoulders
you'll ride on to avoid being run down.
- Have emergency info on you.
- Cultivate a useful paranoia because sometimes
they really are out to get you.
I did have a guy run me down once.
He told the cops he intended to kill me.
(Drunks are more candid than sober drivers.)
12-29-18, 09:38 AM
#38
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2018
Location: Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Posts: 5
Bikes: Vintage Cannondale road bike. Their very first model and a nearly as old mountain bike.
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
From the point of view of living in the Ozarks of NW Arkansas a road with actual bike lanes looks like a dream. Here the roads are narrow, steep in both directions and very twisty. They have NO shoulder, the white edge stripe is the absolute end of the asphalt and that drops off into a deep rocky ditch or better yet off a 100ft. cliff. Oh, I forgot to mention the tourist and cell phone addicts who have no comprehension of the reason for a center stripe. It's all point of view.
12-29-18, 11:38 AM
#39
20+mph Commuter
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Greenville. SC USA
Posts: 7,516
Bikes: Surly LHT, Surly Lowside, a folding bike, and a beater.
Mentioned: 31 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1434 Post(s)
Liked 331 Times
in
219 Posts
From the point of view of living in the Ozarks of NW Arkansas a road with actual bike lanes looks like a dream. Here the roads are narrow, steep in both directions and very twisty. They have NO shoulder, the white edge stripe is the absolute end of the asphalt and that drops off into a deep rocky ditch or better yet off a 100ft. cliff. Oh, I forgot to mention the tourist and cell phone addicts who have no comprehension of the reason for a center stripe. It's all point of view.
I was grinding up a mountain on the road in the photo and heard a truck struggling up behind me. Found a "good" spot off to the side of the tarmac to pull over and wait for the truck to pass. The shoulder was a lot softer than I thought so the bike stopped immediately and leaned the wrong way - to the right - and tossed me about 6 feet down the ravine. Luckily the right pedal caught in the soft ground so the bike stayed up top and I could us it for a hand hold to get back up to the road. Trucker must have had a good laugh. I got a little scratched up but nothing serious. Bike was fine too.
Last edited by JoeyBike; 12-29-18 at 11:46 AM.
